ROSIE ୭˚. ᵎᵎ

“I do,” she told him curtly, taking a piece of paper from 3 separate piles and clipping them together. ”I’m preparing handouts. These should be enough to… steer their curiosity.”

No matter what Rebecca did to prepare for it, he still thought the whole thing was a horrible idea. Not because he doubted her abilities, but because children were (in his mind) such unpredictable grenades. You couldn’t handle one the same way you handled another. He wanted to be nowhere near the blast radius when they detonated. At random. There was no telling which one would go off first, or why. “Gotta love your confidence,” he finally managed, biting into a bagel.

Rebecca looked up from arranging the paper sheets, “I can work with children, Billy.”

“You say that now.”

“They are not bioweapons.”

He slowed his chewing and considered her statement carefully. “Debatable.”

She snorted softly before returning her attention to her supplies. Rebecca had taken every opportunity to prepare for this. There were laminated diagrams, colorful plushies of smiling human organs, a cartoon presentation about cells wearing little hard hats and “working together as a team.” She had even packed dozens of heart-shaped stickers because she thought rewarding participation would instill confidence.

Billy watched all of that in silence. Right now, he looked like a man witnessing a fresh recruit march onto the battlefield armed with nothing but craft supplies.